Graduation Day at the Bay [C. Prideaux]

Graduation day came early for one group of Delview students who were enrolled in the Bay Junior Management program earlier this year. Almost every Thursday afternoon after school since early October these intrepid students have been heading off to the Bay at Guildford Mall to learn management techniques at the Bay.

The Bay Management program helped them realize the complexities of running a large modern department store in today’s competitive market environment. They were given practical lessons in sales and marketing such as building rela tionships with customers through listening and communication. As managers they came to understand how to motivate and inspire employees, select as well as develop leadership qualities. On a personal level they discovered how personal accountability can overcome obstacles, achieve goals and help create new opportunities.

Like a scene out of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice”, they were given responsibility for a particular department in the store and presented with a final in-store challenge of a personnel, financial, merchandising nature. Their remarkable strategies and solutions were presented in a Powerpoint presentation to a group of Bay managers and School administrators in the “boardroom” on graduation day in mid-April. I am pleased to report that they all came through with flying colours. We congratulate them all and wish them many more successes in the future. We are very proud of them.